


Fancy Seeing You Here

by subcircus



Category: Highlander: The Raven, Highlander: The Series: The Series, Nikolai Dante (2000AD)
Genre: Community: consci_fan_mo, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-01
Updated: 2011-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 00:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/206907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subcircus/pseuds/subcircus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikolai Dante is doing what he does best - being dashing and stealing things. Trouble is, someone beat him to it, someone from his past who has been doing this an awful lot longer than he has.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fancy Seeing You Here

**Author's Note:**

> Nikolai Dante is a thief and a shameless flirt. So's Amanda. Seemed natural they should meet. Should be comprehensible to the uninitiated, I hope!
> 
> Nikolai Dante is the eponymous hero of a series in the weekly comic 2000ad. For the purposes of this fic, you need only know that he is a swashbuckling thief in a dystopian future Russia, the son of a pirate, Captain Katarina Dante. Good looking and witty, he as an easy time with the ladies. If you’re interested in finding out more, he has an entry on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Dante

Nikolai breathed on his hands to warm them up; gloves were a hindrance to such delicate work, but in the Siberian winter fingers soon lost any heat once gloves were removed. Once the feeling returned he began to work on the lock he needed to pick. Within a few moments he had the door open.

He’d already disabled all the electronic security measures, so it was now simply a matter of getting past the guards and millions worth of diamonds would be his for the taking.

“Diavolo,” he muttered as he approached the guard desk. Both men were snoring gently, an empty bottle of vodka on the desk. It looked like someone else was interested in the diamonds. Nikolai could only hope that he’d got there first.

He cautiously headed toward the vault, sword drawn. As he rounded the corner and the vault came into sight he spotted a person, clad in black, kneeling in front of the vault door. From the way the tight clothes hugged their body, Nikolai was fairly certain his competitor was a woman.

“Just give me a second, I’ll be right with you,” she said casually. Her Russian was flawless, though her accent was strange.

A few seconds later, the vault door swung open.

“Thanks for doing the hard work,” Nikolai said. “Now, I hate to be ungallant but I believe those diamonds are mine.”

The woman stood and turned to face him; she seemed to be assessing him. Nikolai took the moment to do some assessing of his own; she was gorgeous. There was something familiar about her too that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. She bent down to a large bag on the floor and pulled out a sword.

“Sorry, but I’ve put months of planning into this. I won’t let them go without a fight,” she said.

“I don’t make a habit of beating women,” Nikolai replied. The woman smiled.

“That’s ok, I don’t make a habit of losing.”

She stepped forward and brought her sword around in an arc, Nikolai barely had time to bring his own up in his defence. She was fast and it became apparent to Nikolai as they fought that she was well-practiced with a blade.

He brought his sabre up, hoping to disarm her, but she sidestepped the move and thwacked him across his hip with the flat of her blade. She let out a playful laugh and Nikolai realised she was using the duel to flirt with him.

He grinned and used his greater reach to get under her defences and pull her close. As he did she gasped and he stole a kiss before letting her go again. The kiss didn’t even phase her though, as she brought her blade up again almost immediately and with a flick of her wrist, Nikolai’s sword was sent skittering across the ground.

Nikolai stared at his sword and then at his opponent, who was still pointing her blade at him, but smiling seductively.

“I don’t know whether to kiss you or kill you,” she said, panting slightly.

“It’s been said before. But I’m too cool to kill,” he said with a grin.

He didn’t know what it was, but something he said must have startled her because she lowered her sword and stared at him.

“Kolya?” she asked, startling Nikolai. “Nikolai Dante, is that you?”

He continued to stare at her, dumbfounded. He knew he recognised her, was she one of his conquests? If too much vodka had been involved then there was no way he would remember her name.

She shook her head, as if sensing his thoughts, and it was that look of loving frustration that finally unlocked Nikolai’s memory. Amanda Pavlova had served with his mother’s crew when he was younger and had taught him almost everything he knew about sword fighting. No wonder he’d been outclassed.

“Amanda?!” he stammered. “But it’s been…ten years? You haven’t changed at all.”

“You certainly have. All grown up. And my how you’ve grown. Katarina must be so proud.”

“I wouldn’t know,” he replied, unable to keep the note of petulance from her voice.

“You mean she threw you off? Her own son?” Amanda asked. Nikolai nodded.

“No men on a ship of Katarina Dante. As soon as I hit puberty I was dropped at the nearest port,” he replied.

“Oh, poor Kolya,” she said and stepped forward to hug him. “Why don’t we grab the diamonds and go back to my apartment? Talk about the old days,” she added, running a playful hand up his shirt in a way that suggested they wouldn't be doing much talking. Inwardly Nikolai shrugged; he could do older.

“Sounds good.”  
*-*  
The next morning, Nikolai woke to find himself alone in bed, with a single diamond necklace to keep him company.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 7 of consci_fan_mo 2010


End file.
